Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 10:20:48 EST
From: "ze tink! ze tink, boss!"
Organization: one word after another...
Subject: EXERCISE: Plot #5: Escape: 20 Master Plots
Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B.
Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8.
(p. 93) "...The escape plot is physical, and as such, concentrates its
energy on the mechanics of capture and escape. ... Escape in this plot
is literal: The protagonist is confined against her will and wants to
escape."
This is a kind of mirror to the rescue plot--instead of waiting
patiently to be rescued, here the victim is their own hero and frees
themselves.
Escape plots tend to revolve around unfair imprisonment (the innocent
imprisoned for a crime they did not commit; prisoners in war; witch,
ogre, or other evil creatures seem to love to imprison hero(in)es), but
it doesn't have to--sometimes it is a test of wills between two strong
personalities--the gaoler and the jailee.
The broad strokes (not the broad arrow, for those of you who follow such
historical references):
Phase One: The protagonist is imprisoned. The crime may be real or
not, and the punishment suitable or not.
Phase Two: Imprisonment and plans for escape. Attempts at escape,
especially during phase one, should fail, be foiled, or only allow the
temporary illusion of success before recapture and return to prison.
Phase Three: The Great Escape Attempt! Don't forget the lesson of
Mission Impossible: even the best plans have to have something go wrong
so that the stars can improvise a brilliant save. Or as someone
military put it, the most careful battle plans only last until the first
shot is fired. (p. 96) "Wild cards come into play. Enter the
unexpected. All hell breaks loose. To this point the situation has
been tightly controlled by the antagonist, but suddenly the situation
becomes fluid, out of control either by gratuitious circumstance or by
design of the hero. The hero, who has been at a distinct disadvantage,
finally gets the upper hand, and if there's a moral score to settle, the
time has come for settling it."
Checklist:
1. Escape is literal, so -- how is your hero(ine) confined? Is it
unjust or just unwillingly?
2. How clearcut (black and white) is the moral argument? Usually it
should be clear why this escape is really a triumph for good.
3. The hero(ine) should be the victim.
4. How does the hero(ine) become imprisoned? Are there some initial
attempts to escape which fail? (I.e., do you have a phase one?)
5. How does your hero(ine) plan to escape? Are there several attempts
which are thwarted? (i.e., what's phase two?)
6. What is the real attempt to escape? Is there a real chance for it
to succeed? Is there a real chance for it to fail? (phase three!)
7. Does the antagonist have control during the first two dramatic
phases? How do they lose control or how does the hero(ine) gain control
during the final phase?
[boy, I hope someone is reading these...]
Onward to consider plotting a tale of escape. Pick ye olde number from
one to six, please?
1. false imprisonment
2. prisoner of war
3. locked in (a store? a school? a locker room? someplace...)
4. kidnapped
5. captured by terrorists
6. taken hostage during a crime (bank robbery? car wash robbery?
etc.)
If you think about it, there are lots of opportunities now to be
captured by inanimate "guard" systems, as well as all kinds of groups
that might feel better with an unwilling guest or several. There are
also so many different fantasy and fiction evil captors--feel free to
pick another one if you like.
[and lest we skip lightly past it, consider that "imprisonment" or
"caging" means different things to different folks. One might even be
cast out--and want to somehow escape back into that society and
fellowship that means so much! One might even consider the age-old
tension between teenager anxious to try out things and parental
desires to limit the damages to be a variant on the escape plot...]
Stop here and consider your characters. There should be a fairly strong
captor to make our protagonist work to get away. The POW camp director
should make our day grim. And our protagonist needs to have some
strength of character, some moral drive to make sure they don't break,
although they will certainly bend, twist, and ache.
Now take a blank sheet and write one character's name on one side, the
other on the other side at the top. Underneath, write the kind of
imprisonment that the protagonist is facing.
Think of three to five different ways to put them into that captivity.
Perhaps one of the more interesting ones is to start with an aborted
attempt to escape, just as they are being shoved into the gates. A
flurry of action, some exchanges of words, and the character of the
protagonist can be revealed, often along with some hints at the raw
power that the antagonist wields.
Pick the one you like, though, and sketch that scene out.
Now think of several different ways that the protagonist might try to
escape. Take the one that you are going to really use and set that
aside. Take two or three others and use them as attempts that fail. It
is often helpful to think through how these failed attempts are going to
contribute to the final attempt. You can also go back and revise to
work some threads in (e.g., perhaps during one of the early attempts the
protagonist picks up a two-foot piece of monofilament, which becomes
critical during the real attempt--you might not have written it in
during the first pass, but you can go back and revise it in easily when
you realize that he really needs that).
How about a number from one to six?
1. monofilament fishing line
2. a clothes hanger
3. an eight inch square of aluminum foil
4. a papiermache red pepper
5. a 5 pound tub of margarine
6. a cockroach
Okay? There you have an object. It could be art, it could be trash, it
could be just the magic needed to make one of your escape methods take
off. In any case, toss it into your mental grinder and let it simmer.
One more number, one to sixish?
1. anger
2. love
3. fear
4. desire
5. hatred
6. moral righteousness
Just for fun, feel free to sprinkle a bit of this emotional sauce into
the mix. I suggest that one of the characters should probably feel
driven by this emotion, perhaps towards the other one.
Go back and answer the questions in the checklist.
That should put you well on the way to writing an escape plot. Take
your imprisonment, your object for meditation, and a heaping scoop of
emotional spicing, knead well, and let it rise. Bake in the oven of
your own talents until golden brown with an aroma that invites the
reader to partake of the feast, slather on a dab of butter and honey,
and watch for smiles...
a quick start for those who are in fear of blank pages? How about:
The door closed quietly behind her, until the lock clicked home
with a metallic chuckle. That's when she spun and threw herself
against the door.
For those who wonder, this beginning is provided for your use, abuse,
or even discarding. Feel free to start here and go on to an ending,
if that helps.
[a hot-air balloon escape? why not! but having a troll talk during
the whole escape would be awfully boring, don't you think? oh, that
was no troll, that was your boss? I think I see...]
tink